Did you know that companies with diverse management teams can increase their revenue by 19%?
Practicing diversity management means acknowledging diverse backgrounds and cultural differences. And identifying them as valuable to the organization.
All organizations should focus on creating a more diverse environment at work. And ensuring that these work environments provide an inclusive experience for everyone.
This is not only important for balancing out the diversity injustices of the world. Having diverse groups in the workplace can also improve your business performance.
It also enhances good management by preventing any discrimination. And promotes inclusiveness.
In this guide, we’ll cover what workforce diversity is and we will discuss some of the most important strategies to manage workforce diversity.
What Is Workforce Diversity?
Workforce diversity is the practice of creating a positive working environment. Companies embrace and value the similarities and differences of team members. And the main aim is to work together to reach a common goal.
Nine Ways to Manage Workforce Diversity
1. Incorporate Diversity into The Hiring Process
Diversity starts during the hiring process. To create a diverse organization, you need to focus on making diverse hires. The best way to do this is to run an audit of your current hiring process. And see if any areas might be slowing down diversity.
Before selecting new hires, your business should be able to show that the talent pool is as diverse as possible. This includes gender diversity and diverse cultural backgrounds. The more diverse the backgrounds, the better.
Assess how you find and hire new candidates. You should assign a team of people to avoid an individual’s own cultural bias.
Adding diversity efforts to your workforce planning and hiring process is one of the most effective ways to create a more diverse organization.
2. Create Diversity Goals
To achieve optimal diversity in the workplace, your organization should have clear, actionable diversity goals. Workplace diversity goals should be measurable. This makes it possible for your organization to track its success.
Discuss the goals with your team. And ask them for their opinions on what goals to install. The aim is to get buy-in from your employees. They will then be more invested in the process.
They will also see the value in workforce diversity.
3. Review Your Workplace Policies
Your workplace policies must be up-to-date and match your diversity goals. Any organization that wants to improve and manage workforce diversity should assess its policies to ensure it aligns with the set-out goals.
For example, parental leave policies might need to be adjusted to support LGBTQ parents. Reviewing remote work policies can also help to improve diversity, and assist individuals with certain disabilities.
4. Embrace Remote Work
Embracing remote work can be an effective way to develop a more diverse workforce. Remote work is extremely popular for all kinds of organizations. Amongst its various benefits, is the advantage of eliminating location-based hires.
Remote work lets companies hire across different cities, states, and even borders. This opens up hiring to a far wider talent pool, which is a sure-fire way to improve diversity in the workforce.
5. Improve Communication
Strong communication is essential for managing a diverse workforce. You need to make sure that your company can easily communicate all policies, processes, and important information to everyone.
Language and cultural differences could add a barrier to communication.
Ensure different versions of the same documents are available to individuals who speak different languages. You also need to ensure that employees understand and are aware of all important information received.
6. Encourage Teamwork
Teamwork is an excellent way to promote diversity in the workforce. Try to encourage diverse teams to work together, this will create a sense of cohesion.
This will help employees to see the value in workforce diversity and learn from each other.
7. Treat Everyone as An Equal
All employees should be treated equally. The best way to do this is to only focus on achievements. Instead of looking into the employee’s background, measure their success based on merit and their current performance.
Standardized rules and processes should be applied to all employees.
8. Consult with Employees
An important strategy in managing workforce diversity is getting feedback from employees. A great way to do this is to send out anonymous surveys. You can use this platform to ask questions on how to promote diversity in the company.
You can also ask employees to rate their experiences, leave comments, and provide feedback. This shows your employees that you care about their experience. And want to improve diversity standards.
Asking employees for feedback can also reveal certain diversity issues or blind spots that you might not have noticed.
9. Create Conflict Management Strategies
If an issue around diversity arises, it’s important to have a strategy in place that outlines how you will handle it. This will help you continually improve workplace diversity. And will make sure that no issues get swept under the rug.
Set up a conflict management process, this should involve conflict review by a diverse panel. By setting conflict management processes in advance, you also ensure total transparency and fairness for any possible diversity issues.
Conclusion
Workforce diversity and inclusivity should be major considerations for any organization. It’s important for companies to know how to create a more diverse workforce, as well as how to manage diversity effectively.
Successful workforce diversity management can help businesses to create work environments that are more positive, productive, and innovative.
When it comes to securing top talent, improving brand awareness, and increasing employee satisfaction, managing diversity are all essential components.
